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News > Latin America

Remember Elian Gonzalez? Here's What He Said About Fidel

  • Cuban President Fidel Castro talks with Elian Gonzalez, July 14, 2001, in Cardenas, Cuba.

    Cuban President Fidel Castro talks with Elian Gonzalez, July 14, 2001, in Cardenas, Cuba. | Photo: AFP

Published 27 November 2016
Opinion

Interviewed on Cuban state TV, Elian called Fidel a father-figure who became a friend.

Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who became the object of an international custody battle 16 years ago in Miami, mourned the death of Fidel Castro Saturday, a man he likened to a "father."

Elian Gonzalez with his father and as a young man. | Photo: EFE

"Fidel began to be that father like all who start off as fathers, but the difficult thing is for a father to become a friend," he said, interviewed on Cuban state TV. "He is a father who like my father, I wanted to show him everything I achieved. That he would be proud of me — that's how it was with Fidel — if I learned something, I wanted to show him. And there are still many things that I want to show him," Elian added.

Elian Gonzalez is held by his paternal grandfather Juan Gonzalez upon his arrival at Jose Marti airport June 28, 2000, in Havana. | Photo: AFP

Elian was five years old when he was found floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast in November 1999. His mother and other Cubans accompanying the boy died on route from the island 90 miles to the south, Elian's father had not been told of the voyage.

The right-wing Cuban community in Miami took advantage of his case to try to further their counter-revolutionary agenda, as his great-uncle's family tried to keep him in the United States.

However, the whole scheme backfired when U.S. and international opinion instead insisted Elian be returned to his father in Cuba.

IN DEPTH:
Fidel: A Revolutionary Life

An international campaign launched by Fidel and the Cuban people eventually led to U.S. immigration agents having to seize the boy at gunpoint from the Miami home where he was being held hostage.

He was returned to Cuba to a big welcome on June 28, 2000. It was a major blow to the counter-revolutionaries in Miami as well as to the U.S. aggressive policy toward Cuba.

Elian joined Cuba's Young Communist League and has been an outspoken supporter of the revolution.

Now almost 23 years old, Elian had two specific memories of Fidel. "I believe that there were two particular moments: one was the moment when he attended my graduation from the sixth grade, the sum of studies from elementary school, and that at a public event he said that he considered me a friend, an extraordinary honor," he said.

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